Christopher Penn vividly makes clear the varied architecture of political influence
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Christopher Penn vividly makes clear the varied architecture of political influence

I’m grateful to Christopher Penn, cofounder of BrainTrust Insights, for his analysis of link and influence on both sides of the political spectrum. Yesterday, he posted some incredible graphical visualizations. Here’s how describes what he did: Using Facebook’s API and its Crowdtangle journalism tool, we extracted 6 months of data from approximately 250 conservative and…

Can you write a privacy policy that’s clear and transparent? Pinterest did.

Can you write a privacy policy that’s clear and transparent? Pinterest did.

Facebook has clearly demonstrated how not to explain complex privacy questions. It committed the principal sin of privacy: it surprised its users. By contrast, Pinterest’s policy is a model, not just for privacy, but for simple language about technically complex subjects. You can see Pinterest’s policy here. What I like about it is that it’s…

Facebook’s sneaky “opt-in” defense for tracking all your texts and phone calls
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Facebook’s sneaky “opt-in” defense for tracking all your texts and phone calls

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal, we found out that Facebook was also logging the texts and calls of Android users. Facebook pointed out that all those users had agreed to the tracking on an opt-in screen. In other words, Facebook took advantage of the fact nearly everyone clicks on things without reading…

Nothing significant will change at Facebook
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Nothing significant will change at Facebook

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg appear to be in trouble. Zuckerberg published an explanation, participated in an interview with The New York Times, and appeared on CNN. People are upset and some Facebook users are quitting Facebook. But nothing is going to change — Facebook will…

The lesson of Cambridge Analytica: Facebook shares your data by design.
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The lesson of Cambridge Analytica: Facebook shares your data by design.

Cambridge Analytica, a company funded by Republican backer Robert Mercer, used data from 50 million Facebook users to model the electorate. But this isn’t a data breach. Facebook is a machine designed to encourage people to share their preferences, then exploit it for profit. Despite Facebook’s protests, this is a feature, not a bug. According…

In defense of social technologies

In defense of social technologies

Many of us who promoted social media when it was young are now wondering if we made a mistake. For example, former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya has said “The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works: no civil discourse, no cooperation, misinformation, mistruth.” So I decided to take a look…

A better solution to fake news, starting with Facebook

A better solution to fake news, starting with Facebook

Fake news is a big problem, and Facebook is at the center of it. It’s clear that made-up and distorted stories amplified on Facebook helped swing the 2016 presidential election. But the simple and “obvious” solutions to the problem have backfired. Now Facebook is at work on something better. And I have a proposal based…

Facebook’s arrogant and patronizing statement about changes to the News Feed
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Facebook’s arrogant and patronizing statement about changes to the News Feed

Facebook’s News Feed shows both what your friends share and what companies that you follow share. In some countries, Facebook is ripping the company stuff out of the news feed. But publishers need not worry, because as it says in its patronizing, arrogant, and ultimately meaningless statement, it has “no plans” to make those changes…